1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slot-in optical disk drive, particularly one that relates to a loading device of the slot-in optical disk drive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the technology of electronic and mechanical industries continue to develop and progress, the quality of computer peripherals such as hard drives, disk drives, scanners, printers and so on are becoming better. As far as the storage medium of the disk drive is concerned, the disk has evolved from the 700 MB storage capacity of traditional CD (compact disk) to the 4.7 GB storage capacity of the DVD (digital versatile disk). As these types of disks are capable of storing data in very long term, they have become the mainstream of the market for storing data and something that every consumer must have.
Current disk drives use either a tray-loading mechanism, by which disk is loaded or ejected is relied on the tray moving inward or outward of the inlet of the disk drive, or a slot-in mechanism, by which the disk is slid into a slot and then drawn in further by disk loading device. The disadvantage of the slot-in mechanism is that, as a result of having no tray to let the user to align the center of the disk with the center of the spindle, the disk may not be smoothly loaded into the disk drive, e.g. the disk may get stuck on the loading path.
Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. FIG. 1 shows the mechanism of a conventional slot-in optical disk drive, which comprises a slot inlet 15, a motor 21, a transmission unit 23, a slide plate 30, a left loading lever 20L, and a right loading lever 20R. The inner end of the two loading levers 20L and 20R are pivoted on a pivot pin 13, which can move along a guide slot 10.
When a user pushes a disk into the slot inlet 15, the left loading lever 20L and the right loading lever 20R will, at the touch of the disk, recede and open wide, causing the pivot pin 13 to move toward the slot inlet 15 along the guide slot 10. After the disk is pushed into a certain depth, the motor 21 is then activated, which, via the transmission unit 23, brings the slide plate 30 to move to the left. The slide plate 30 is provided with a first guide track 31 and a second guide track 32. When a 12 cm disk is loaded, the two loading levers 20L and 20R will open wide apart as a result of the larger contact angle with the disk and the pivot pin 13 has a longer downward travel. Thus when the slide plate 30 is driven leftward, the pivot pin 13 will move along the first guide track 31. In the same way, when an 8 cm disk is loaded, the two loading levers 20L and 20R will open. However, the span angle will be smaller and the pivot pin 13 has a shorter downward travel. Thus when the slide plate 30 is driven leftward, the pivot pin 13 will move along the second guide track 32.
After the motor 21 is activated, the slide plate 30 will be driven, through the transmission unit 23, to move to the left and the pivot pin 13 moves along the first guide track 31 or the second guide track 32. As it is confined in the guide track 31 or 32, the pivot pin 13 also moves along the guide slot 10 downward and upward, so that the left loading lever 20L and the right loading lever 20R will bring the disk to a predetermined position.
However, if a user does not place a small disk (8 cm disk) in the middle between the two loading levers 20L and 20R, then only one of the loading levers will be touched and activated, i.e, when the disk is placed more to the left, then only the left loading lever 20L will be touched and activated, and vice versa. Hence, when the transmission unit 23 started to drive the slide plate 30, the disk will get stuck in the drive because the uneven push force of the two loading levers 20L and 20R may not be able to push the disk into the predetermined position.